Felicity Liggins

Felicity works with health and government customers, as well as commercial clients, providing bespoke interpretation of climate change science.

Current activities

Met Office Consulting is able to forecast and advise on the potential consequences and risks of climate change. Acting as the authoritative and leading source of climate change science, Met Office Consulting is best placed to interpret climate change science, its strengths and uncertainties. Since joining the organisation in 2008, Felicity has worked within Met Office Consulting and alongside experts in the wider Met Office, bringing bespoke interpretation and analysis of climate change science to a range of customers. In 2009, Felicity contributed to the
Health Practitioner's Guide to Climate Change. Increasingly, policy- and decision-makers in the healthcare sector are recognising the threats and opportunities climate change could pose to the health and well-being of people around the world. In conjunction with the Met Office Health team, Felicity is helping healthcare professionals understand these, and applying the Met Office's weather and climate expertise to this developing area of science. Felicity also provides climate change advice to a range of government departments. In the past, her customers have included the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office the
Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and the
Environment Agency.

More recent projects have enabled Felicity to advise local government on specific impacts of climate change. In early 2010, Felicity helped
Dorset County Council Highways team interpret the UK climate projections,
United Kingdom Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09), enabling them to plan their climate change adaptation strategy. Felicity is also working with the
East Midlands Development Agency, investigating the links between the projected changes in climate and the economy of the East Midlands. Felicity has also contributed to a number of high profile investigations for commercial customers, including Barclays and ABI.

As part of her ongoing professional development, Felicity is currently undertaking a Masters in Science Communication at the
University of the West of England. Related to this, Felicity is also a
STEM Ambassador, promoting not only the work of the Met Office in education, but also encouraging young people to study STEM subjects and show how a career is STEM can be exciting, rewarding and of benefit to society.

Career background

Before joining the Met Office as a climate change consultant, Felicity worked for four years at the
Environment Agency, based in Blandford Forum, Dorset. Beginning in the Hydrometry and Telemetry team, Felicity split her time between processing hydrometric data, later to be used in flood defence design, water resource licensing and public prosecutions, and travelling the Wessex countryside measuring river flows, groundwater levels and collecting rainfall data from enthusiastic observers. Felicity then moved into strategic flood risk management. Project managing the delivery of catchment flood management plans for the Hampshire Avon, Frome and Piddle, Dorset Stour and the West Dorset streams, Felicity gained experience in communicating risk, and in particular climate change risk, to a variety of audiences. Her time at the Environment Agency followed her taking her Masters degree in geology from the University of Southampton.